Conveying a relatively narrow article that is inherently unstable or impossible to maintain in an upright position imposes certain challenges for securely transporting such an article. For example, in a hospital or clinical laboratory, it may be desirable to transport a sample or reagent containing receptacle, such as a test tube, from one location to another (e.g., from a first processing instrument to a second processing instrument) in an upright orientation, so that the contents of the receptacle are retained during transport and can be accessed by an automated pipettor at a subsequent location. The instability of the test tube makes it impossible to transport in an upright orientation on a conveyor mechanism without some form of support.
Conveyors suitable for use in a laboratory or in other applications in which articles are moved along a sequential process may comprise commercially-available, so-called puck conveyors, or puck handling systems, configured to convey or otherwise manipulate circular, disc-like devices, having a configuration reminiscent of an ice hockey puck, and which can be configured to hold an article that is to be conveyed, along with the “puck,” by the conveyor. Such conveyor systems include the model X45 conveyor platform and the model X45e drive and puck handling units, operable with the XUPP 43 interface puck, available from FlexLink AB, Göteborg, Sweden. Holding a narrow article, such as a test tube or other narrow container, on such a puck device allows such commercially-available, readily scalable and configurable conveyors to be used to transport the containers.